Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Sláintecare Integration Fund formed part of the Sláintecare Action Plan 2019, which established the building blocks for a significant shift in the way in which health services are delivered in Ireland. Budget 2019 provided €20 million for the establishment of a ring-fenced Sláintecare Integration Fund or SIF, to support service delivery which focuses on prevention, community care and integration of care across all health and social care settings.

The SIF Round 1 supported 123 HSE and NGO sector projects, to test and evaluate innovative models of care providing a ‘proof of concept’ with a view to mainstreaming and scaling of successful projects through the annual budget estimates process.

The selection criteria for funding were:

• To encourage innovations in the shift of care to the community or provide hospital avoidance measures;
• To scale and share examples of best practice and processes for chronic disease management and care of older people;
• To promote the engagement and empowerment of citizens in the care of their own health.

Successful SIF projects were mainstreamed via NSP 2021 and 2022 at an estimated cost of €24 million.

The MS Ireland “Active Neuro” project was mainstreamed with ring-fenced funding allocated in Budget 2022 to the HSE to continue the project in 2022, and this has continued in 2023.

Any consideration for whether, and how best, to expand this service within the HSE, would be matter for the HSE to consider and to make a business case to the Department of Health, as part of the annual Estimates process in advance of the Budget later in the year.